Neil hughes knows the sensation all too well. Everything goes blurry, and sunlight seems to reach his eyes bent every which way, as though he has suddenly slipped underwater. As the light grows brighter at the periphery of his field of vision, he raises his hands to cover his eyes, like the blinders on a horse. But the gesture is futile: An electrical firestorm, which medical researchers call an aura, is already raging inside his head. Auras are neural disturbances that signal the onset of migraine headaches. They manifest themselves in numerous ways, including multichromatic showers of shooting stars, flashing lights, zigzagging lines, images broken up into herringbone or cubist patterns, loss of vision, weakness, tingling, or confusion. Sometimes the hallucinations mysteriously come and go and are a minor annoyance. More often, what follows is a nightmare: a seemingly interminable bout with throbbing head pain, nausea, and diarrhea.
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